I don’t think about Jon’s death anywhere near as often as I used to. For the first couple of years I obsessed about it constantly and December 19th loomed in my mind for weeks in advance. I wrote an intense post about Jon on the one-year anniversary of his death, and I’m sure I referenced it in subsequent years, too. But the pain faded with time. There were years when I only thought briefly of Jon on December 19th, and more with a feeling of wistful nostalgia than grief.

I finally caught the corona.

This news is no longer particularly interesting. It seems like everyone in Johannesburg, and their mother, has had the ‘rona at least once at this point. But this is my first time so it still feels somewhat momentous to me. And I felt compelled to publicly deliver the news, since last week I practically bragged about not catching covid from Thorsten (my partner) and acted like I was some kind of immunity superhero.

Greetings from the Omicron epicenter! I imagine lots of people in other parts of the world, and even elsewhere in South Africa, are wondering what’s really happening with the Omicron variant in Gauteng. We’ve got some first-hand experience at the Blogitect (blogger + architect) household, so here it is. (If you’re curious about the recent covid stats in South Africa, click here.)

A few days ago, I received a hot tip from my friend Debjeet about a Korean corn dog place in Boksburg called Mustardbox 713.

Thursday afternoon, we learned a group of South African scientists had sequenced a new variant of the coronavirus. It didn’t have a Greek alphabet name yet – just B.1.5-something-something – but we knew the covid case numbers (although still a small fraction of what Europe and America were experiencing) were starting to tick up in South Africa.

To finish off my Western Cape road trip (read about the earlier parts of the trip here, here, and here), Thorsten and I spent two days at the De Hoop Collection in a remote part of South Africa’s Overberg region. The De Hoop Collection is a privately owned lodge inside the De Hoop Nature Reserve, which is run by the provincial government entity CapeNature.

I’ve been wanting to visit Cape Agulhas since my first visit to Cape Town in 2011, when I took a day trip around the Cape Peninsula and learned that the Cape of Good Hope is not, in fact, the southernmost point in Africa. It took another decade but I finally made it to Cape Agulhas, Africa’s real southern tip, a couple of weeks ago.

I’m taking a quick break from my Western Cape road trip series to tell you about Syrian Rose, my new favorite restaurant in Fordsburg. Syrian Rose is unquestionably the best place in the entire city to chow down on spicy grilled chicken, shawarmas, and fresh fruit juice.

Thorsten and I spent two days in Arniston, a tiny seaside town about three hours southeast of Cape Town, as part of a mini Western Cape road trip to celebrate our anniversary. Our stay in Arniston was courtesy of the Arniston Spa Hotel and Cape Country Routes.